


What If...

by GanemPyrre



Category: B.A.P
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Never Met, Festival, M/M, Minor Original Character(s), Smut
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-06
Updated: 2017-08-03
Packaged: 2018-09-22 11:48:53
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 13,868
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9606380
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GanemPyrre/pseuds/GanemPyrre
Summary: The annual Hankuk festival in Seoul is coming up and all the top idols in the country are preparing for the week of festivities, trying to get as many slots on the stage as possible, with their group and without.Choi Junhong (Zelo), a famous rapper and choreographer, has many performances and is struggling to cope with the pressure until he finds himself growing closer to another famous rapper which he has worked with a few times (Bang Yongguk) and who he is performing with at Hankuk.He finds himself making friends across unlikely circles and getting into a relationship that goes against the wishes of both his parents and his company who are threatening to release his private life to the media.





	1. Day one: Zelo POV

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just want to note that I have made up the names of the bands that have been used because it's an alternate reality and it would sideline the plot too much if I had to add the name of another K-pop band on the fandom list, no one would read this just to read about B.A.P.

My heart sank as I looked at the performance schedule for the upcoming Hankuk festival... I was in way too many performances and they had only just informed me of any of the performances that I was in, plus, I had completely forgoten that the festival was going to happen in the first place.

"Why wasn't I told about this?" I asked my manager (Kim Hyun-ah), distressed. They were supposed to tell me about my schedule before they confirmed it with other people.

"I did tell you..." She said and I looked at her confused. "Remember that weekend that you had to stay in your apartment because you had lost your voice and had a fever?" She asked and I thought back, remembering that she had stopped by and rambled about something before leaving. I guess a look of realisation must have washed over me because she smirked at my reaction. "Remember now?" She asked and I sighed, shaking my head at her.

"You should have asked me when I wasn't trying to do anything to get you to leave." I complained.

"That was the whole point of doing it then." She argued and as I was about to protest she continued. "Anyway, there are three months before the festival actually takes place, meaning that you have plenty of time to work on all of the performances and we can introduce you to the groups you will be working with." She smirked and i just sighed, sliding down into the seat in the corner or the mirrored practice room.

"We will be getting the lyrics and backing of the new songs Re-s will be introducing with you tomorrow and the ones with Last Minute will be here by the end of the week." She began as she passed me a note pad and a pencil so I could write myself some notes, rather just relying on her all the time. "Ty-red will be here at the end of the month and the managers of Ban-d and P@nic will be here Tuesday - please make sure not to mess around too much. Bang Yongguk will be here tomorrow morning and you two will be meeting with Jung Daehyun for the collaboration song." She said. "Oh and RINGZ will be here later on to work on the songs you will be doing with them." She smiled and I nodded, hoping that that was all I needed to know and that she hadn't forgotten anything.

"Okay, so how many performances do I actually have?" I asked her, scanning over the time event schedule and trying to count them up.

"20!" She announced proudly and I looked at her in shock. "If you don't count the surprise schedule on the final day." She grinned. "Congratulations, you are this years most sought after idol." She cheered and i couldn't find a way to bring a smile to my face. "You have the highest amount of performances of any band or solo act by four performances, you have to be proud of that."

"You could have just forgotten and I would have been happy." I sighed and she shrugged in response, way too happy for her own good.

"You should be happy, do you know how hard it usually is just to get a single performance time?" She asked me. "Your becoming more popular and more respected, you should be glad about that not stressed." She pushed but I just sighed, not wanting to admit that she had a point. "Plus you get that duet performance with Missy, you're the first person to ever get one of those!" she exclaimed.

"Yeah, but we all know that it's because she had a thing for me..." I pointed out.

"We can use that to our advantage." She grinned. "You'll get to meet her later with the rest of RINGZ and you can discuss the song that you will be doing together." She said before reading my face and continuing. "And yes, that does mean you will be writing a new one together, weather you like it or not."

"You know, I originally thought you were a very happy go lucky person... I was wrong, you're a demon." I grumbled and she just shrugged.

"Meh, well, I'll leave you to practice. RINGZ will be here at two so make sure to eat and shower before they arrive." She persisted and I just muttered some form of agreement before picking up a bottle of water from the side of the chair and taking a big gulp. I then got up and turned on the music, letting myself fall into time with the steps. I found that I never got to dance too much when I was choreographing my own work because I rapped and sang too much, I often preferred to work with a group or band because I got to add in more difficult moves and (sometimes) perform them on stage with the group.

I had just finished my dance meaning my legs were bent down in a crouch and my arms bent so that my fists touched, my forearms making a straght line, with my right fist flat against my face (causing a downwards tilt with my arm). I was panting lightly and I closed my eyes, glad that I had finally managed to run through the song (at least once) without failing. I then noticed a clapping sound behind me.

I opened my eyes and looked into the mirror in the direction of the door to find seven girls applauding me as I rocked back onto my ass sweeting profusely. 

Damn! 

I hadn't kept an eye on the time and I must have gone over.

I looked at the clock to find that I was right, it was quarter past two. I hadn't had a shower and I also hadn't eaten...

"I see you're still in here." Hyunah said, as she walked into the room, glaring at me then turning to smile at the girls waiting at the entrance. whilst I made my way over to the chair to grab my towel that had been slung over the back of it.

"I'll take a quick shower." I smiled at the girls. "I need to be more presentable than this." I said and walked over to them as Missy nodded her small head vigorously whilst I passed them. "I'll be back in a few moments." I said as I quickly escaped the situation with a set of eyes burning through the skin on my back, though she couldn't say much in front of the girls.

Unfortunately, it didn't take long for me to shower and change into something presentable before I found myself back in the room surrounded by mirrors on every side bar the one that promoted the entertainment company that I worked for. The girl group was gathered around Hyunah who was telling them some long winded story that was probably about me, judging from Missy's reaction.

Don't get me wrong, Missy was cute and had a nice personality but she was not my type... and she was a girl... (my attraction to men was one of my preferences that the entertainment business liked to hide from my fans).

"Hey." I smiled as I walked back in. My hair was still a bit damp from the shower so I shook it a bit before sitting down on the wooden floor next to them.

"I was just telling them how you will be going back on the regimen again." Hyunah said with an evil glint in her eyes and I looked at her in confusion. "Because you need to show off your abs during the festival..." She said, like I had known everything for months.

"What?!" I protested. "But I was just about to go off of one..." I groaned.

"Yes, but you need to stay on it." She grinned. "It's going to be incorporated into the choreography for Last Minute." She explained and I rolled back so that I was lying on the floor and groaned.

"Anyway, back to the task at hand." She announced clapping and prompting me to sit back up. "There are already two songs that are written for the festival that you will be performing with RINGZ and the other one, that you will be performing with Missy, has yet to be written." She explained. "You guys will be allowed some alone time with Hangyong for the music and lyrics on Wednesday." She explained and I made a mental note to jot it down on the notepad when they left.

"Won't we be allowed any alone time, just me and Junhong?" Missy asked and I contained my frown as she smiled at me.

"You will all spend more time with him when the Choreography is done and during the practice sessions leading up to the festival." Hyunah explained. "But at the moment Junhong has a tight schedule and this is not the only song that needs writing and revising before the festival, there are about ten that need to be written."

"Ten?" I asked, feeling deflated.

"You only have to solo five of them, and still Hangyong always does a great job when you work together, you will get them all sorted within the month." she cheered but, coming from her, it only made my mood fall.

"You must have a few performances." One of the other members of RINGZ (Nana) said. 

"Twenty..." I huffed and her eyes widened. "Did you not look at the performance schedule for the first four days?" I asked and she shook her head.

"We haven't got it yet." Missy said. 

"Well... it's going to be a long couple of months for me, so sorry that I won't be able to spend too much time practicing with you girls but I know you are all so talented that you will be able to keep up with my fast pace." I wasn't quite sure if that came out as a compliment or an insult but they just smiled and went along with it, meaning that it couldn't have come out that bad...

"Okay, well... here it is..." Hyunah said passing them mine, that had been highlighted at the points where I would have to be on stage. The only problem that I really had with the festival was that it was only five days long and had an open choice for the audience to vote on songs that would be preformed on the last day. I had no idea how the festival got to be so famous... They only played songs at night and during the day it was a meet and greet with the bands and/or artists that were performing. I guess it was a fans biggest dream... I loved the fans and I loved meeting them but I didn't like their long hours.

"We have three performances." Nana said happily. "Two of them with you..." She said looking up happily. I wasn't quite sure if she was happy at the news or jealous that I would be on stage with them more than they would be on stage alone.

"And don't forget the one with just me and Junhong!" Missy pipped up and I forced a smile in their direction. The festival was already a hard topic to talk about and i had only just been reminded that it was going to happen on that day. i had no idea how the hell I was going to put up with the three months of stress, tension and overworking that led up to the final performances. Most groups only had five performances, up to ten if they were really popular, and solo artists averaged at ten to twelve... but my company just had to one up them all didn't they...?

"How would you like the duet performed?" Hyunah asked Missy who gave her a strange look. "I mean, would you like it choreographed, would you like it just standing up and singing, playing piano... what?" She asked again and Missy nodded, understanding the randomness of my manager.

"Probably performed around a piano, considering the theme..." She said and I already knew that I wouldn't have a choice. What could I do? It was a duet with a girl, of course it was going to be a love song...

"Okay..." Hyunah said then a thought crossed over her. "Do you know how to play the piano?" She asked and Missy's face dropped. "I'll take that as a no... it's too short a time to learn... Junhong." She said piquing my interest. "You know how to play... you do it..." 

"What?!" I asked. I had picked up several instruments in the past five years since I had debuted and the piano was a lovely instrument... but in a love song it was often the girl that played it... "I'm not that good." I tried but my words got shot down with nothing more than a pointed glare. "Okay... I'll put in some more practice." I said, hoping that Missy wouldn't take my original reaction as me not wanting to work with her.

"I'll make a note of that for when I talk to Hangyong next..." She muttered to herself as she jotted something down in a notepad that she pulled from a bag that she had kept at her side.

"Will we be working on the choreography of our other songs with you hung?" One of the members that hadn't yet spoken (In-hye) asked.

"Yeah, you will be, at least, working on the two that we're performing together with me." I smiled and she nodded before looking down again and going back to fidgeting with a frayed hem in her sleeve.

"That means we will be spending a lot of time together!" Missy said in glee but I had to push her down from her high horse before she got too far ahead of herself.

"I have a lot of other performances as well so we will probably end up meeting only a few days a week after the first month of song writing is finished." I explained. "But, we will have to see how it goes..."

"A few days a week is still more than before." She pointed out, much to my disbelief. "And maybe even after the festival we could try to keep in touch and go out together... clearly just as friends..." I don't know how she thought that I hadn't seen her confession video online but that was what it appeared to be.

"Yeah... maybe." I smiled, I had said the same thing to many people but she was the first person that had been so famous that I ended up lying to.

After another half an hour of Hyunah coming out with random questions or preferances for the choreography of the other songs as well, as asking for details on when the songs would be sent to us, we ended up parting ways and Hyunah wondered off in search of Han-gyong to give him information on the duet the we would be starting in two days.

I sighed as I pulled myself up into the only seat in the room as I turned down the lights to a low glow as I shut my eyes. I was glad to be alone with myself for a few minutes of peace. I hadn't really had a moment to settle my head on the information that I had been given just a few hours earlier.

I could almost feel the fatigue that was bound to build up over the next few months. It was the first day and I was already exhausted from just my conversation with RINGZ... what would happen when I came to talk to the five other groups and then Daehyun and Yongguk on top... 

To be honest, the only person that I was looking forward to seeing was Yongguk Hyung... we had done a few past collaborations under 'Bang & Zelo' (our stage names) and we had gotten quite close. It had been a while since I had seen him properly and something inside of me was getting excited that he would be working on me with so many songs. We would probably be spending a lot of time talking and going over choreography, even in our own personal life... We were both very dedicated to our careers and we enjoyed that we could talk to one another about it. We were close... 


	2. Day two: Zelo POV

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey all,  
> I just figured that you guys must have guessed by now that this is going to span across a few chapters and not get down to the juicy bits straight away.  
> Anyway, I just figured I would tell you that the main reason I am writing this book is to see how far I can get into a fanfiction before my friend actually takes notice of it and says something (should be fun).  
> That does not mean that I will stop writing when they see it, it just means that I want to test them...  
> Anyway, down to the story...  
> P.S. I AM RIGHT NEXT TO THEM AND THEY DON'T SEEM TO HAVE NOTICED!!!

I sat watching the door, waiting for my old friend to enter. It had been a long time since I had seen Yongguk-hyung considering he had just gotten back from his tour in the States. For me, the past few months have been spent preparing, releasing and promoting another album.

"Been a while." A deep voice called from a hidden position behind the door before he stepped out and I grinned, rushing over to give him a hug. "Uff." He breathed when I collided with him but he soon burst out laughing. "You're too tall to be doing this Junhong-ah."

"But hyung..." I protested and he laughed giving me a quick squeeze before pulling away.

"I heard you spent yesterday with RINGZ." he said and I nodded suspiciously. "I heard that the Missy girl likes you, plus you two are doing a duet..." He hinted and I scrunched my eyebrows up in disgust at the idea, why did everyone expect me to like every girl that had a crush on me.

"She's... five years younger than me..." I said, changing my sentence in hopes that he wouldn't notice. It wasn't just the company that wanted to keep my secret, though I would rarely admit that...

"So...?" He asked. "I've dated people five years younger that me before." He shrugged. "Well, whatever... how have you been?"

"Dying..." I sighed as we walked further into the room and sit down on the chair but Yongguk beat me to it so I sat down on him dramatically. "Hyunah has signed me up for twenty performances at the Hankuk festival."

"I heard." He laughed. "I got thirteen, which isn't exactly twenty, but it's over the average for a solo artist." He explained and I sighed, leaning my head back and noticing a sudden tension in Yongguk's back, but shrugged it off, he was never overly touchy feely in the first place.

"You're lucky..." I sighed. "I have to work with a girl group that apparently all like me but won't admit it to my face, like the video didn't go viral..." I complained and that got a stiff laugh from the body behind me. "Are you okay?" I asked twisting on his lap, so that I was facing him. 

"Yeah, just a bit tired." He admitted nervously before standing up and dropping me to the floor. "We should go, we're meant to be meeting up with that Daehyun person..." He said and I grumbled as I stood up from the floor.

"Where are we even going?" I asked.

"That is exactly why I was sent to meet with you." He explained. "Your manager is such an idiot that I figured she wouldn't have told you." He laughed. 

"You have a point there..." I sighed as I followed him through the door and down the corridors. I managed to lose track of where we were going as I kept on looking at him. He seemed a bit off... For some reason he wouldn't talk to me properly, had I done something to offend him? The more I looked at him the more I realised that he was my type but as soon as I did I quickly shook my head and just followed, avoiding eye contact, which wasn't hard; he wouldn't look at me.

"Hyung." A voice called when we got into the restaurant/cafe area of the building. 

I scowled at the person as Yongguk went over and gave him a quick hug, gesturing for me to do the same. I didn't for a moment but I quickly gave in, unsure of my previous actions.

"Hey..." I said with an awkward wave as I sat down on a plush chair, on the other side of Daehyun, as he sat down slowly after me, clearly expecting a hug from me as well.

"I've heard a fair amount about you from Yongguk-hyung." He said smiling and I just nodded with a small smile; he had talked about me with other people? "I've got to admit, I expected you to be more talkative..." He sighed and I shrugged as Yongguk looked at me with confusion and a slight amount of worry towards my actions.

"I talk more when I get to know people." I explained and he nodded.

"Fair enough..." He muttered. "So, shall we get down to business?" He asked with an extravagant clap of his hands. "We are doing a song together..." He began. "Anyone have any ideas...?" He asked and I sighed.

"This is going to be a very productive few hours..." I sighed and Yongguk laughed while Daehyun shrugged.

"Do you want to move somewhere else, so we can get into a better mind set?" Daehyun asked.

"What about my practice room?" I suggested, proud that I was one of the few solo artists within the company that got a personal practice room rather than one that I would have to book times for.

"But there's only one chair in there!" Yongguk protested.

"We can always take a few from the storage room next door." I said and he laughed slightly, ruffling my hair but not saying anything against my idea.

"Are you two dating?" Daehyun suddenly asked and I looked at him confused whilst Yongguk froze with his hand still on my head, probably from the shock of the question. "I mean, you're very close and Yongguk I know is..." He began but Yongguk slapped his hand over his mouth, so hard that he was pushed back into his seat and a red mark was left across his lower face.

"What was...?" I tried.

"Don't worry, let's go." Yongguk said standing up, but something seemed off.

"What is it?" I asked as I let him pull me up but wouldn't take another step until he explained whatever it was that they had decided to hide from me.

"We are meant to be doing the song." Yongguk pointed out as Daehyun sat up, rubbing his reddened jaw our glaring at our hyung.

"Well, we can start that after." I said with an innocent smile. "You're the one holding the whole process up. I'm prepared to move whenever you say whatever Daehyun-hyung was going to say." I said and I noticed Daehyun smile when I mentioned him, it was probably because of the fact that I had called him my hyung ...

"It's nothing..." Yongguk tried to insist but I knew better, he was trying to get out of telling me, meaning that it was something that was either embarrassing or interesting.

"Do you want to be waiting here for the rest of the day?" I asked and noticed a small smirk making it's way across Daehyun's lips.

"Yeah hyung, why don't you tell the kid what you've been hiding from him." Daehyun said slyly and I decided that it had to be both embarrassing and interesting for him to be 'hiding' it from me. I wanted to know now, I really wanted to know.

"Shut up..." Yongguk said to Daehyun before turning to me with pleading eyes. "It's nothing, can't we just continue on and forget this happened?" He asked and I shook my head reluctantly, knowing he was close to cracking. "Junhong-ah..." He pleaded but I wouldn't budge, I knew to hold out. "You don't need to know everything about me!" He suddenly snapped and I recoiled slightly at the sound, he had never yelled at me before... "Sorry..." He sighed and I kept looking at him. I was no longer waiting to know, just frozen in place but he must not have realised. "I'm gay!" He finally admitted and Daehyun smirked while I just stood there in shock, before leading the way to my practice room.

I really had no idea how to respond to that, so I just found myself trying to ignore it.

Throughout the rest of the time we were together I noticed that Yongguk kept on sending me unsure looks but we never spoke further on the subject and focused more on the song.

We ended up writing the lyrics and getting a rough idea about the melody but the rest of it was still to be decided upon, the choreography was going to be done by me, but they had to agree to it for it to be passed off. I even got a quick recording to begin working with until we worked out the kinks and got it processed by the team that was specialised in that...

"How many performances did you say you had?" Daehyun asked me as we sat back in the cafe, more relaxed with each other than earlier, though Yongguk was still not talking to me much.

"Twenty." I sighed as I sipped my drink.

"Damn, and I thought twelve was bad." He said then frowned and pulled out a slip of paper from his back pocket. "Your stage name is Zelo, right?" He asked and I confirmed. "I'm working with you for something else." He said and I leaned forwards in my seat, barely registering Yongguk's immediate reaction of rocking forwards to see if it was true before shaking his head and leaning back.

"So you're working with Last Minute as well?" I asked and he shrugged.

"Only on one song. How exactly did your manager get all of your performances, most of them are with the top idol groups at the moment." He said. "Most of mine are unknown startups that only have a two stage set throughout the entire week." He sighed.

"Yeah, but think about it, that is an average of half an hour on stage, a night, and at least the entirety of the day slipping between the groups that I am working with as well as having to be at my own appointed area for signings..." I explained. "You have roughly half as much meaning you can actually breath and eat." I explained. "Oh, and don't forget the before stage interviews and after stage talks, which I have managed to get with all six of the groups that I am working with..." I complained.

"I hope you are not good friends with sleep..." He laughed. "I will only be doing one after stage talk with Last Minute, oh, but don't forget that you also have to do it for your group of Bang & Zelo." He laughed.

"Oh, don't worry, you will be dragged into that as well..." I smirked and he rolled his eyes as Yongguk laughed at us. "Are you back with us now?" I asked and he glared at me for a second before sighing.

"Just don't spread it, I've been working too hard over the past few years for this to ruin my reputation." He explained.

"Okay..." I shrugged. "It never really bugged me in the first place." I told him in hopes that he would cheer up but instead his face seemed to fall slightly. He quickly hid the reaction with one of his grins but I couldn't help but feel that something else was going on behind the front that he was putting up, I just needed to get to the bottom of it...

"Yeah..." He smiled. "Oh, and you will be doing the pre performance interview with us, I confirmed it with our managers before we met up earlier." At that Daehyun's face dropped.

I found it more amusing when Daehyun was upset than when Yongguk was upset, but I didn't really have time to question it because the conversation was continuing without me. I ended up just dismissing it under the speculation that I was closer friends with Yongguk and had only just met Daehyun.

"So... what will you be doing for the choreography?" Daehyun asked and I looked at him like he was an idiot.

"I can show you the whole song now if you want, I thought it through and I think everything should match up well, even when we have edited and finished the song, with the different music." I said in a sarcastic tone.

"Really?" He asked and I almost hit him around the head because of his stupidity.

"No." I told him, dropping the smile that I had plastered on.

Yongguk didn't say anything he just sat there and watched the short conversation plan out, he had done a similar thing when we first met but he hadn't quite thought that I could have come up with the whole dance through thought, without practicing.

"You haven't worked with many choreographers before, have you?" I asked and a sheepish look washed over Daehyun.

"I never really had to, I have always been a solo act..." He explained. "When I have, it has all been pre-planned..."

"Well, it doesn't just happen by magic." I sighed. "How much experience have you had with singing and dancing at the same time?" I asked him and the same sheepish look returned. "You will need to practice that a bit... I guess we'll be spending more time together than originally anticipated." I sighed.

"Don't forget about me!" Yongguk interrupted comically. "You already have several songs that you will have to work on and choreograph with me..." He said and I sighed.

"I have to work with many people and I am choreographing most of my performances at the Hankuk festival." I explained with a groan. "How the hell am I going to remember all of this?" I asked myself. "After our meeting I have to look over and listen to the backing track for the Re-S songs and start on the choreography for those, before I begin on the Last Minute stuff later on in the week."

As though the world was watching me, at that moment I got an urgent text from Hyunah, telling me that I didn't get my ass to the practice room within three seconds I would mysteriously 'jump' from the top of the building that we were in. As a response to her message I made sure to walk as slowly as humanly possible as I made my way to my practice room only to regret noticing the text and not pretending that I had missed it.

Crap!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about the changes, some of the ones I made on the other computer didn't go through and it just published what was previously updated, sorry...


	3. Re-Start: Zelo POV

I entered the practice room only to regret responding to the text that Hyunah had sent me as she sat in my corner seat, looking like she was in between a rock and a hard place. There were seven people sitting in a slight circle with everyone to their own chair bar one person that was sat on another man's lap with the man in question embraced by the man he had sat on.

My mind raced through everything that I could think of to explain the awkward situation that had induced an even more awkward silence before I recognised the people the people from the idol group 'Re-S', one of the groups I was working with and probably the most popular group at the moment. I almost felt like an idiot for not recognising them... almost...

"Oh..." I said as Hyunah stood up and looked at me with a distressed smile.

"They came to personally drop off the backing track and lyrics, to make sure you got it." She explained. "Well, I have to go, they wanted to talk to you about it anyway..." She said with a smile before leaving me as though she had been in a small pen with lions.

"Uh... hey..." I said awkwardly before two people filed in behind me and looked equally distressed before Daehyun recognised the two that seemed to be 'together' and went over to them happily. Yongguk and I just hanging in the background.

"Himchan, it's been a while." Daehyun smiled as the younger man got off of the older's (Himchan's) lap and let Daehyun hug him. "And Jongup... you guys seem to be doing well." He spoke as ke stepped away from the pair. "I guess you two have gotten closer since the last time I saw you... in many ways."

"Oh, I forgot we never told you, did we?" Himchan smirked and Jongup just sat down in the seat that Himchan had been on.

"Uh..." I interrupted, remembering that it was supposed to be me who was talking to them. "Why did you follow me?" I asked the two idiots that had followed me through.

"You didn't say anything so I thought something was up... he just followed me." Yongguk answered.

"It was just because my manager texted me, you guys can go back and finish up, I have to sort out some stuff here so..." I began and he shrugged.

"We'll wait." He said and I found myself rolling my eyes.

"I don't know how long this will take." I said and 'Himchan' spoke out.

"Don't worry, they can hang around as well, it's not like they're strangers." He smiled and I awkwardly smiled back before noticing that they were already wondering off to get themselves some chairs.

"So..." I began awkwardly as everyone returned to their original seating positions, with the addition Daehyun and Yongguk. "Have you got the backing to listen to?" I asked and 'Jongup' passed a CD over to me from Himchan's jacket pocket.

"The lyrics are in the case." Himchan said as I opened it up and found a folded piece of paper along with a CD, which I placed into the player.

I folded out the piece of paper as the device began to recognise the disc. All of the lyrics had been written in different colours, a pale blue being allocated to me.

"Do you guys want to go over it so that I can get a feel for it." I muttered everything was still quite awkward.

After that we began to settle into the music, after changing the CD over because they hadn't marked out which side it was on... We settled into a less awkward rehearsal as I tried to grasp what my parts were and how they wanted me to rap it, they clearly knew that I could rap fast and took advantage of that.

"Why did you come personally?" I asked once we had finally gotten one that sounded close to what we wanted the end result to be and had called it a day.

"Because we had nothing else to do." Himchan honestly said and Jongup sighed.

"Plus, we needed to go over the song so your parts weren't too difficult, considering the speed you have to rap at." He explained in a much nicer way than Himchan, who just shrugged off the younger's alterations to his words.

"And that one actually wanted to meet you." Another member (Sohyon) blurted pointing at the angry looking Himchan. "He said that you had debuted not long before us and that we needed to try to get you affiliated with our group to up our popularity before any other group got their 'grubby' hands on you..." He laughed and Himchan's face turned red in anger. Jongup was trying to hide a laugh as he calmed Himchan down and I just sat there shocked and confused, I wasn't really that popular, I had just managed to land a fair amount of performances.

"I'm not that popular..." I blurted.

"Did you know, even though the list was released yesterday, the collaboration songs of you and Re-S are the most anticipated, followed by the collaboration of you, Daehyun and Yongguk." Sohyon explained and my eyes widened.

"Yeah, but that is only when I am working with other people." I disputed.

"Most anticipated solo artist and third most anticipated all-round." He explained. "Statistics don't lie."

"You seem obsessed with statistics..." I muttered, who would actually look that up? Who would decide that after just a day of the schedules being released?

"Nope, it was Himchan who looked it all up." Sohyon laughed with his group as Jonyup tried to distract Himchan by giving him a light kiss on the cheek and whispering something incoherent into his hyung's ear.

"Yeah, but you guys can't put yourself down." A voice said from the entrance and Yongguk smiled at me with Daehyun in tow. They had gone to get us all some coffee to help with our dry throats. "You guys are very famous as well, you're the most popular group at the moment, otherwise this kid wouldn't be working with you." He said as he walked over and ruffled my hair. I didn't hit his hand away, like I thought I would, I just found myself relaxing to his touch before I realised what I was doing and pulled away to glare at him.

"What are you on about?" I asked.

"Your manager may have gotten you a lot of stage time but she turned down a lot of offers as well." He explained and I raised an eyebrow, not quite believing what he was saying. "You're more liked than you think idiot." He said before ruffling my hair again and taking one of the cups from the tray, that daehyun was carrying, and giving it to me.

"I had no idea..." I muttered as I took a sip from the take away cup.

"That's probably because you spend your days cooped up in this room focusing on dancing and music without relaxing, unless you're sleeping, eating or on stage..." Yongguk said in a dull tone as I gave him an awkward smile, what he said was pretty much true... I did relax though...

"I just can't relax a lot recently because of the album and now the festival..." I pouted, hoping that he would stop pestering me.

"You know, you're really cute." He said out of nowhere and I recoiled, scrunching up my nose.

"You're the only person who could ever think that." I muttered taking a large gulp of the coffee but regretting it as I remembered how warm it was and just ended up burning my mouth and coughing a lot...

"Is it only me that thinks something is going on between those two?" Himchan asked quietly, probably not caring that we could hear every word he spoke, and Jongup shook his head, agreeing with his lover (well of course he would) but it was soon followed by murmurs of agreement which made me flush with both anger and embarrassment. 

After that everyone from Re-S bar Himchan and Jongup decided to leave meaning that the only people left in the room was me, Jongup, Yongguk, Himchan and Daehyun. We ended up staying my practice room for about an hour, just talking about random things. It had been way too long since I had done anything other than over working and saying I was fine.

I don't really know how long we stayed there exactly because I had somehow managed to fall asleep as we all talked. I had moved my chair so I would be more comfortable and I had ended up curling into the seat and falling asleep on my guests.

I woke up in a strange position in an unknown place. The only thing I knew was the person that was facing me on the bed that I was on. My face was almost touching their's and our legs were intertwined with his arms falling over mine as we slept. I flushed and recoiled, waking up Yongguk as I turned over to hide my expression whilst he yawned himself awake.

"Morning..." He muttered and I felt the bed dip then rise behind me as he got off of it and began padding off in an unknown direction. "You seemed pretty tired yesterday so I figured I wouldn't wake you and brought you back to my place, before you ask or freak out about it." He sighed and I flipped over to see him going towards the kitchen. The whole place was very big but open pan with bare brick walls. It was nice but it was the type of place that gets very cold in winter.

"Oh..." I sighed as I sat up, feeling stupid for my momentary thoughts. "Sorry about that..." i sighed and he laughed.

"It's cool." He said going off into a side room. "I have some spare clothes you can wear if you want to take a shower after me, then I'll sort breakfast out and drop you back at your place." He called from inside the room before closing the door, turning on the extractor and then the shower.

I found myself falling back into the covers, sighing in pleasure as I breathed in a clean yet musky scent. I rolled over to where Yongguk had been and smiled at the heat. He was shorter than me but had a broader build which was nice as I settled into the warm sheets and closed my eyes for a moment, letting my mind wonder...

As soon as I realised where my thoughts were going I snapped my eyes open and shook my head harshly. Yongguk was just a friend, a close friend sure, but just a friend... plus he was straight, right? No, of course he was... Wait! He said he wasn't...

My mind rushed with questions: Why were we in the same bed, not me on the sofa? Why was he being so nice to me? Why not leave me there to wake up in the chair? Did he like me...? 

No!

I shook myself and got up, I needed to straighten my head before my thoughts wondered too far off track.

Most of the time we spent together was silent or working on songs so I hadn't ever thought about anything outside of that with him before, but now that this whole new door was open...

I sighed and just waited to have a shower before taking one and sitting awkwardly on a stool watching Yongguk lay out some food.

"So... what do you think of Re-Start?" He asked me and I looked at him blankly. "Re-S, the band from yesterday!" He pointed out.

"Oh, them... They seem cool, especially Himchan hyung and Jongup hyung." I shrugged. "But Sohyon bugs me..."

"Because of the girly name?" He laughed and sat down opposite me, motioning for me to start eating. " Or because of his personality?"

"Both..." I muttered. "You and Daehyun seem close..." I muttered. "I've never really met any of your other friends or any of the other people you work with before... It seems like you've known each other for quite a while..." I dragged on and, when I realised that I was rambling, I quickly went silent.

"Yeah, he works with a partner record label." He said. "He's been looking into swapping labels when his contract runs out and joining a start up group." He explained. "He's been trying to push me to push for forming a group with him and a few other people." He explained and unexpectedly, my heart dropped.

"Oh..." I muttered and put some food in my mouth. "I guess you guys are really good friends."

"Yeah, were good friends..." He said tilting my head up to look him in the eye before he retracted his arm quickly and went back to eating.

I wasn't really sure what to say to that so I just dropped my head when Yongguk's phone began ringing from the counter beside him. He answered hastily, seemingly glad about the distraction but made no move to leave his spot to speak to the person on the other end in private.

"Daehyun..." He answered and I stared at my food, not eating just to make sure I could hear what was being said. "You want to try to make a group with him as well as me?" He asked laughing. It must have something to do with the group thing he had been talking about just a moment before. "He's conscious of that already..." He said and then glanced at me and stood up, moving away slightly, but not far enough that I couldn't hear him (he probably didn't realise though...). "What's with you and forming a group?" He sighed. "I know I said I would, but only if you can find enough people that we get along with... No, you ask him... I'm not your personal slave. Respect your elders... No... You can deal with that, you're the one who's... I know... And? You're the one who wants him in an imaginary group that hasn't happened yet.. Whatever, you sort it out... bye..." He said then hung up as I quickly stuffed my mouth before he turned around.

"Sounds like it was an interesting conversation..." I muttered after swallowing.

"You have no idea..." He sighed. "Daehyun can really be a handful sometimes... I would advise avoiding it as much as possible, if you didn't have so many clashing schedules with him."

"I only have two performances...." I pointed out.

"I'd say the same things if you didn't." He sighed. 

After that our conversation gott a lot more relaxed again and he dropped me back off at mine before I drove back into work.


	4. Chapter

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for not updating in a while, I have a 'fun' medical condition and no medication seems to come without 'Interesting' side affects...  
> Anyway, enjoy :)

**Himchan POV**

"What do you think of that Zelo guy from earlier?" Jongup asked me as he sat on my lap, watching the drama on the television across the room.

"He seems fine..." I muttered nonchalantly.

"He's got a pretty good history in the business..." He added and I mumbled an agreement. "Do you think Daehyun will ask him too?" He asked and I looked at him in confusion. "I mean, he's really good and they are working together on several projects, plus he even seemed impressed by the fact that he could keep up, Sohyon originally made it that fast as a joke, he has a different version..."

"I know..." I sighed. "But this version sounds better..."

"So do you think he will?" He asked.

"We haven't even fully agreed yet, our contracts don't need renewal for another few months." I pointed out.

"Yeah, but everyone else finds it difficult around us... plus we've been talking about the group with Daehyun for years." he countered, turning so his legs were spread either side of my lap. 

"True, but it would still be awkward... I mean, he's straight." I sighed, trying to make him see logic. "That's why we were out cast so what makes you think that it would be any different than what we have now with our band mates?" 

"Are you sure there's nothing going on between him and Yongguk... they just seem so... close." He muttered and just when I went to speak he pouted and put his hand over my mouth. "I know he denied it but I've seen the way hying looks at him, it can't just be one sided, right?"

"I don't know that there is even anything going on there." I said after he dropped his hand from my mouth. "Yongguk isn't the type to randomly like someone. They've known each other since their debuts and they've worked together in the same company for years, of course they seem close." I muttered, trying to convince myself of this because, in my eyes, Yongguk also seemed closer to the 'Zelo' kid than he is with most people.

"I guess..." Jongup sighed. "Never mind." After speaking he tried to pull away and get out of his position, straddling me, but I grabbed his waist tightly and forced him to grind against me. "Daddy..." He whimpered and I grinned at his reaction.

"You didn't think I would let you get away when you're in such an interesting position talking about other men now, did you?" I asked smugly as I slid one hand into his hair and pulled him down to crash on my lips. He didn't even struggle, he just fell onto me, moaning into the kiss as my hand slipped from his waist and found it's way to listen up his belt.  

I managed to get it off quickly and whipped it down beside me, it might be useful in a moment, before I undid his jeans and slipped my hand inside of his underwear.

He breathed out a grasp as I touched him...

But the moment was soon interrupted by a voice from the entrance yelling "Get a room!"

"We have one!" I yelled back to Yongjin as I went back to kissing Jongup.

"Get a private and sound-proof one." He said barging in on us and cringing. "This is the living room, not porno central..."

**Yonguk POV**

I wasn't quite sure what I was meant to be doing after I dropped off Junhong so I ended up going into my studio in the company and trying to think of some lyrics for the song. This was before Daehyun barged in and sat on the paper I was writing on and trapping the pencil below his ass.

"I have found them all!" He told me and I looked at him wondering what he was on.

"Are you referencing Pokémon or something?" I asked looking at his face that seemed higher than a drug addict.

"No!" He yelled at me and I pulled my face back, away from his. "I mean for the group!" He said excited, jumping from the table and pulling a chair around to sit next to me as I turned mine to be able to see him face to face. "I have found four other members, that's enough right?" He asked and I rolled my eyes.

"Have you asked them all?" I asked and his face dropped before shrugging and continuing.

"No, but it's only two people I have yet to ask." He grinned and I rolled my eyes. "It's the perfect line up, we just need to convince those two... but one of them I think I can already get."

"Do I even want to know why?" I asked and he just grinned at me. "Who are they?"

"Me, you, Kim Himchan, Yoo Yongjae, Moon Jongup and Choi Junhong." He explained and I rolled my eyes.

"I thought I said Junhong would be difficult to get." I sighed and he smirked.

"It wasn't him that I said would be easy to get and we have to have him because you like him." He told me and my eyes widened. "Don't deny it, I've known for ages, even before I met him."

"Why do you always have to do things on your own whims?" I asked and sighed when a knock came from the door and my manager burst through waving a highlighted piece of paper.

"The interim performance schedule is out!" She said as she walked over then eyed Daehyun before shaking her head, used to his presence. "I've kept your performances minimal but you'll have to be present everyday now." She explained. "I have given you the average amount of solo artists."

"Thanks." I said taking the sheet off of her and looking over the sheet.

"This year they decided that they only want solo acts for interim performances," She explained and I nodded as Daehyun leans over to see if he could find his name before he got his version. "They just want to individual talents because recent focus has been on the idol groups and not solo acts... though many groups are just singling out a few members to do some solo acts as an individual promotion." She sighed.

"Is that why there are a few with just the group names?" I asked, slightly confused.

"That is where the a company has booked a slot for a group member but not said who it was." She explained. "I can give you the information on those next week." She explained, she always seemed to know what she was doing and tried to do what was best for both of us. I pitted Junhong a lot because he had managed to get a manager that was only ever focused on getting as much stage time as possible. "Oh, and I would advise trying to help out that friend of yours." She said turning around at the door frame, after turning around to leave. "He has the most stage time of any performer this year, by a mile." She said with a small smile before closing the door behind her, probably not wanting to intrude any longer than she already had.

I sighed and looked down at the sheet of paper, noticing Junhong's name repeated over twice as often as mine.

"This is another reason we need to form a group with him, well a few really..." Daehyun began rambling as I scanned over the paper. "One, he has a hell of a lot of publicity and Two, we need to get him away from that hellish manager that he found himself." He explained and i looked up.

"Why are you still here?" I asked him.

"I'm here because I want to be here." He shrugged. "Plus, we need to discuss when the group would be formed." He began and I turned my back to him, pretending to tune him out (though he knew I never would). "I was thinking of trying to from it around the time that the festival takes place." He said. "Apparently, all of the members I am trying to gather either debuted at the same time, are about to file a law suit or can easily get out of their contract (e.g. ME!)." He said and I rolled my eyes. He had done a 'not so formal or binding' contract because his parents were the ones who started the company he was under and they had hoped that he would leave eventually, so they didn't rely on them so much. "Or they are already at the company I want to sign with."

"The contracts Junhong and I have are solo artist contracts." I explained.

"I know that." He grinned into my back. "But you resign a month after the rest of them, as you guys both debuted almost a year before the rest of us." He explained and I could almost feel his eyes burning holes into the back of my head, compelling me to agree with his plan. "Plus, your company has been meaning to get out their first boy group for a while, but just can't seem to find the right people for the job..."

"This is your project, if you want to pitch it, you pitch it..." I sighed, staring at the sheet, I wasn't in the right mindset to continue but Daehyun didn't really care weather I was or was not.

 "I am, I have a meeting with..." He trailed off, never any good with names. "One of the higher ups... about forming a group and scouting members tomorrow." He said and I turned around, surprised by the sudden and fast development of the plan. The plan was something that I always thought would sit on ice until we were way too old to even consider it anymore and then it would be discarded. 

"So you actually think that you could get everyone you mentioned?" I asked, swivelling around in my chair. He had my attention- well, he had gotten it earlier but he didn't need to know that...

"Yeah, I think the only one I would have to work on is Junhong, but I am sure I could get there, especially with the persuasion of a lover..." He hinted suggestively, nudging his shoulder randomly in my direction and raising his eyebrow as I just looked on at the eccentric display, wondering how he actually became my friend.

"I'm not his lover." I grumbled.

"Yeah, but I'm sure you could be if you put some sort of effort into it." He tried to persuade me, but I wasn't interested in his words. " Anyway, I think I can get everyone, as long as you're still on board."

"I said I would if you could actually pull it off." I shrugged, still not quite believing that he was going to be able to get it processed and finalised. "A deal's a deal, just as long as I can still make my own music and there is no expectation to stick to the popular trends that have no meaning."

"You will be working with the group, so... I can't see any reason why not..." He shrugged. "It would probably be you and Junhong doing a lot of the music writing." He explained. "None of the rest of us are OVERLY good at song writing..."

"Fine, but it's your job to get Junhong, not mine." I agreed. "You're the one who wants him so you're the one who gets him." I said. "I mean, you get him to join the group, he's not your personal belonging..." I rambled, realising what I had said could easily be morphed into something else in the mind of Daehyun.

"I know what you meant..." He sighed. "But come on, you have to help, you're the one who likes him..."

"You're the one who wants him to join the group..."

"Fine, compromise: we both team up and work on getting him to join together, a team effort!"

"NO!"


	5. Maknae - Zelo POV

It had been a month since I first got news of the Hankuk festival and I had finally sorted out all of the lyrics for the songs I was going to perform.

The hankuk festival was quite difficult and poorly planned but somehow loved. It was five days straight of kpop. During the day everyone would meet their favourite band and during the night everyone would listen to them... sounds simple enough. Then you have to add in the 'Interim' performances (on four of the days), which were actually performances that went on during the day to please the people who would not be able to see the ones during the night. All of the interim performances were either dance solos, cover songs or previous solo's by the artist performing. Then, on top of that, you have the last day. During the last day, the first half of the day is dedicated to people voting for their favourite (night) performances of the week and the second half of the day is dedicated to the groups/artists who got voted to perform, so that they can prepare. One last 'joy' of the festival is the fact that all of the night performances have to be new songs, not yet released.

It is alike a giant release ceremony, meaning barely anyone releases anything in the weeks or months leading up to the festival.

"You okay?" Yongguk asked as he came into my practice room with two take away cups of coffee. "You haven't slept properly for a few weeks now." He pointed out.

"I'm fine." I sighed "I just need to send off a few more videos of the choreography then I can relax." I said as I accepted the cup he passed to me with sweaty palms. "They should be done by tomorrow."

"That is until you have to work with each group to get the individual aspects of the song down and edit any changes they want made." He sighed and I just shrugged talking a sip from the cup and sitting down in one of the two chairs in my room, the other had been added because of how often Yongguk had been coming by to visit me.

"I'm fine." I smiled, shaking my head at him. "It won't be as exhausting from now on."

"Has Daehyun talked to you recently?" He asked with a sharp eye.

"Why, did something happen?" I asked. "I was talking with him yesterday, about the song, but that's it. Is he alright?" I asked, wondering whyYongguk would suddenly be serious when talking about Daehyun.

"No, it's nothing..." He smiled, seeming more relaxed. 

"I heard about the group you were talking about before." I smiled. "I heard he's been talking about it with some of the higher ups." I mentioned, hoping to find out more about it.

"Yeah, apparently it got passed and he is the one who has to pick out the members." He explained and I nodded, interested. "I got dragged into the group as the leader though."

"Oh, good luck with it." I smiled, it sounded like it would be fun and I felt a bit left out but I'm sure they would be able to make a lot of good songs with whoever they did it with. To be honest, I felt slightly dejected at the fact that they hadn't asked me but I also had a lot I wanted to do on my own.

"Thanks," He smiled. "What have you got left to do today?"

"I've got to go to meet Last Minute soon but that's it, I'm going do the rest of the videos tomorrow so you came in at a good time."

"How do you keep up with all of it?" He asked and I picked up the book from the floor and passed it to him.

He looked through it, examining all of the stick figures in strange positions and after the solo stick dance was finished the songs each had a group version of the choreography. "I'm not perfect..." I smiled.

"It's actually quite impressive." Yongguk said, standing up and ruffling my hair as I stayed seated, it was the only way he was going to touch the top of my head without it being awkward. "You try hard at everything."

I found myself blushing and turns my head down so he wouldn't see me. I had no idea what suddenly brought the heat to my cheeks but I didn't want him to know that I had got a bright shade of red suddenly.

"I should get going." I muttered, standing up and walking off but catching him in the mirror and he looked at me with a shocked expression as he saw my flushed face and I looked away again, hoping beyond all logic that he hadn't seen it but knowing he had.

I hadn't really needed to go, I had even had to turn around awkwardly to go back to get the book I had shown him. I had walked straight past him and he looked like he had wanted to say something but he didn't speak up so I never found out what he was going to say. I spent the whole drive to Last Minute's agency questioning the expression on his face when I had left and when I had walked past him. Was there something I had missed?

I jumped when the door was suddenly opened by my manager and i rushed my sunglasses and hat on before being ushered into the building, past a group of girls, clearly not waiting for me, though some seemed to who I was.

As soon as I was inside I let myself breath again, taking off my glasses and following my manager through the building. She had to ask at reception, but soon we were heading towards their practice room.

I got abandoned outside their door with the man who had shown us where to go. "He's here..." The man said, opening the door to reveal a group of 14 men sitting around and talking. One of them seemed to be getting a lot more attention in the group and it seemed like a personal thing rather than something I should be walking in on.

The moment they noticed they all stood up, spread out and greeted me with their introduction. I felt quite intimidated by 14 guys suddenly bowing at me. I was at least a head above all of them but still felt small.

"Uh... hi?" I muttered awkwardly. 

"You must be Junhong, I heard a lot about you from Daehyun." The guy who had not long ago been surrounded said, stepping forward to greet me. "I'm Youngjae." He said before the long line behind him began introducing themselves behind me, like I was going to remember 14 names in a minute.

"So... you know Daehyun?" I asked Youngjae after an awkward silence.

"Yeah, he will be here later for the song we're all working on." He said and I internally face-palmed at my stupidity. 

"Yeah... I think I remember that." I said with a sigh. "Sorry, I have been quite busy recently so I had forgotten that." 

"I heard." Another member, Minguk, said. "You have a schedule that would kill. I don't envy you." He muttered. "But, how are you actually managing to keep up with all of that? I mean, you're still standing and you have over thirty performances, most of them with choreography, I bet..."

"I don't know myself." I smiled, relaxing a bit more around them now that they were talking.

Last Minute were quite a popular group. They were a group full of visuals and I felt quite insignificant next to them. 

We soon cleared the space for practice to begin and I skim read through my book to remember all of the dances I had prepared and set up a camera in the corner facing our backs and the mirror in front of us, so I could monitor any changes I made during the practice.

"Jinhyun, you and Minseok come forwards, I want to try adding a flip here and you two look like the only two who could do it." As soon as I said that they both stepped further back into the line of men.

"You might have to do that yourself." Daehyun said from the door and I just rolled my eyes, I had seen him a fair amount over the past month, he was glued to Yongguk and it was bugging me.

"Is that okay with you guys?" I asked and Minguk, who turned out to be the leader, agreed telling me that it was the entire reason I was doing collars with them, it meant that they could do more serious and impressive choreography. "Okay, Daehyun, you might as well take a seat. We need to finish this dance before we go onto the other colab." I explained and he nodded.

It took a few tries but I finally managed to get Jinhyun and Minseok to trust themselves enough to help me to a backwards flip in the air. It looked good when we managed to run through the full dance, it wasn't perfect but it was finished and I got a recording of just that rehearsal, sending it to them so they could refer to it during practice.

After that was done we got onto the piece we were doing with Daehyun. I had decided to make it a chair dance, considering the fact that the song was quite romantic and sad. It worked well but the timing was harder to get because the movements were so much smaller and less exhausting that the members either forgot about them or put too much effort in, overdramatising the actions.

"Why is it so difficult to cross my legs on a chair?" Youngjae complained after we finally got the recording down. He was sat relaxing and leaning on Daehyun.

"How do you two know each other?" I asked taking a large mouth full from my water bottle.

"He asked me to join his group thing." He said and I raised my eyebrows in confusion but before I could say anything he continued. "I'm filing a lawsuit to leave, they breached contracts by releasing personal information to the press when my popularity was dropping." He explained and I remembered the information released about his older brother a few months back. "I want to keep it a small matter though, so do they... meaning they will say it was just a resign thing, they want to save face and it's easier for me."

"Oh, fair enough. When is it going through?" I asked.

"Around the time of the festival, but I have already signed a different contract to say I will perform the festival as a member of the group, with the same rights." He explained and I nodded, not even thinking that far ahead.

"You can stay for our practice with Daehyun if you want..." Minguk said as he stood up and walked over to the mirror as the rest of his members began to follow. "We could use a watchful eye around here."

And that is how I ended up re-choreographing their entire dance. At first it was just a few suggestions put forward, then they asked for suggestions and then I was working with them to form the entire dance. It was fun but also a awkward at the same time. I wasn't from their group yet I was telling them all what to do and when to do it and they just all blindly followed, grinning every time they got a part nailed down and smiling every time I praised them. It felt like I was part of their group and I smiled, liking the feeling, I had always been a solo artist so working in a group was new to me, it was fun...

I was tempted to ask Daehyun about his group but I felt a bit out of place asking about his project, he had probably already gotten the members finalised, it wasn't my place to interfere. 

"So, maknae, do you want to get the coffee with me?" Daehyun asked reaching up and grabbing my shoulder.

"Maknae?" I asked and his face went into shock for a moment.

"You're the youngest in the room at the moment." He pointed out and raised my eyebrows, Youngjae had such a baby face that I thought he might have been younger than me.

"You're the youngest?" Minguk asked.

"You didn't know?" Daehyun asked, laughing at the fact that he was the only person to know something, for once...

"Well, you know what they say, the maknae is always too tall." He said gesturing to the tallest guy in the room apart from me. "They're not normal, they must have stood in grow bags as kids."

 


	6. Chapter 6

Coffee with daehyun and Youngjae was alright. The entire time Daehyun yapped away and Youngjae gave a few remarks to different things he said, leading to over animated responses. 

I had never really known what it was like to be in a group but I couldn't help but feel that it was the closest I was ever going to get to being in a group... Maybe I could do collaborations with Daehyun's group sometimes...

"You okay?" Missy asked and I snapped out of it. We were sitting at a piano rehearsing the song after two hours of dance with the rest of Ringz.

"I'm fine, just a little tired." I smiled as she stood up and looked at me then inspected the space around me, the piano and where she had been sat singing.

"I think I know what we should do, it should be a white piano, the should be roses..." She began, explaining how she wanted the stage laid out and what we should be wearing... I zoned out just nodding and agreeing, I honestly didn't care as long as I didn't look like an idiot or have to kiss her...

it was too long before I was meeting with another group for a run through of our colab before I got a message from Daehyun saying that Jongup messaged him saying that I needed to go over to the Re-S dorm

I knocked on the door cautiously, waiting for some form of response and got it in the form of a person leaning out of the window, telling me to be quiet and then and then another person opening the door to invite me inside.

"Jongup is having a crisis..." One of the members (I can't remember their name) said.

"And...?" I asked. "What does it have to do with me?" 

"It's about his dance, he is the only one in the group designated to dancing..." He said as though it explained everything.

"You were the only dancer we thought of." Himchan butted in, noticing that the conversation wasn't going to go anywhere for a while.

"Oh..." I muttered before they dragged me through the large building to a practice room they had in the basement. "Nice." I breathed out as I looked around the room. I only had the practice room in the company to use, they were lucky.

"You're here!" Jongup grinned as I focused back on the task at hand.

"What's up, I got told I was called over because you were having a crisis to do with dance." I muttered. I was still slightly annoyed at how they had over exaggerated the situation in the message they had sent me.

"I need your help!" He said as he grabbed my arm and dragged me to a chair before pushing me down into it then going back and locking the door. "Tell me what you think." He said then proceeded to dance in front of me. I was still confused as to what was going on but just observed.

"That was good." I said when he had finished and he just sighed, dropping to the floor with a defeated grunt.

""That's just it, I don't want it to be good, I want it to be great." he sighed.

"It was good though, are you using it for one of your group performances?" I asked.

"Yeah, I need it to be good, you know? It's our last performance together and I don't want it to be just good." He groaned.

"It's your last performance?" I asked confused. "Is the group secretly disbanding or something?"

"No, I'm joining Daehyun's group with Himchan." He said like he thought I already knew.

"Everyone seems to be joining." I muttered under my breath but I think he still heard, though he didn't comment. "I'll give you a hand if you want." I smiled before getting up and putting the music back on.

We ended up shuffling around the room for... too long to remember. We ended up with a really good dance (Hoping that the members of Re-S would be able to keep up and learn it). We took so long that we realised the clock hadn't been working since before I got there and that it was now beginning to become light outside the window. We had heard banging on the door a few hours back but had ignored it and it had eventually gone away. We had even managed to sort out one of my solo dances and Jongup's solo dance.

"What time is it?" He asked as I poured the last of the water down my throat. I just slid his phone across the floor from where it had been plugged into the speaker. "Damn." He sighed rolling his head back before sliding down the mirror to lie on the floor. "It's already four, in the morning." He said and I sighed as well.

"I should get going." I muttered as I pulled myself up into more of a sitting position.

"Just stay here and have a nap." Jongup said and I looked over to his almost limp figure in confusion. "You might as well, you have gotten one of your dances out of the way so you can afford a few hours of sleep." He said and I grunted as I got up before lying down on the way-too-small sofa.

"Just for an hour or so." I mumbled as I flung my hand over my eyes and dozed off, not noticing Jongup close the blinds and turn off the lights before he left to his own room.

I woke up to find a confused looking Yongguk looking down over me with Daehyun, Youngjae, Himchan and Jongup surrounding him.

"Uh..." I muttered trying to blink away the light. "Did I miss something?" I asked with a long yawn that meant no one said a word for a good half a minute.

"It's already half twelve." Yongguk said and I bolted upright. 

"What? Really?!" I asked in shock. "I need to go, I have to practice." I said as I jumped up to my feet, swaying a bit as I hadn't quite adjusted to the light let alone gravity.

"You're not going anywhere, you're too tired, we only woke you up to get your managers number to say you won't be in today." Yongguk said sternly.

"You don't understand, I still have so much to do and memorise, I should be back in the practice room." I said as Himchan and Yongguk pushed me back down onto the sofa, disorientating me more. I grabbed my head from the dizziness, I was just a bit tired, I would be fine after getting some coffee into me.

"You're half dead." Jongup said as he stole my phone from me and I reached out only for my hand to be nocked away by Yongguk.

"I'm fine." I said with a small smile, stretching out my lidded eyes to prove a point.

"No, you need sleep." He said as Jongup glared at my phone for a minute before muttering something to Himchan before my wrist was pulled forward and my thumb placed on the home button to unlock my phone.

"No, seriously guys, I still haven't finalised the recording of the dance me and Jongup did last night." I tried to argue.

"You recorded it on your phone, you can record it properly later." Jongup told me as he left to talk to my manager where she wouldn't hear my protests.

"You should take him to yours." Himchan said looking at Yongguk. "He needs the rest and you are the only one who doesn't have other people to bug for the next few days."

"DAYS!?" I exclaimed. "Seriously, I'm fine..." I tried.

"You're about to collapse." Yongguk sighed. "I can't watch you drag yourself through this, now drag your ass to my car or be prepared to get dragged there." He announced and just as I was going to argue he pulled me up, wrapped an arm around my waist and pulled me outside to his car, I was honestly too tired to resist so I just followed along and let him take me back to his place, after Jongup tossed me my phone through the window.

 I had thought I could sneak away because I had my phone and would be able to leave as soon as Yongguk went to sleep but he had snatched my phone in the car and put it somewhere that I didn't know about. I was officially trapped.

I sighed as I led on his bed in some clothes he had lent to me, realising they hadn't thought about what I would be wearing.

"I have so much to do, I can't be stuck here." I complained and he just shrugged.

"I'm working from home for the next week so the most I'm allowing you to do is work on the stuff that includes me or the stuff you're doing alone." Yongguk said as he came into the room whilst putting on a different top and exposing his bare chest in the process.

I couldn't help but stare. Who wouldn't? His chest was well formed and the tattoos across the top of his chest accentuated his muscles.

I snapped myself out of it and immediately realised what he had said. "Wait! A week?!" I asked, knowing that I would fall too far behind if I did nothing for a week.

"Yes a week." He said and before I could protest he put a hand over my mouth and continued. "You will still be working on the things you can do here but I am making sure you rest more and lie down, even if you don't sleep. You are going to send yourself to hospital and when you do that you will really not be able to do anything." He said with a sigh as he removed his hand. "Why didn't you tell me how out of hand this was, you told me it was fine and that you could start relaxing already."

"Why do you even care?" I asked in a moment off anger.

"Because I can see the signs all to clearly." He muttered as he ran the back of his fingers over my cheek, effectively silencing me. "I don't want you to do what I did, I care about you! I can't let you do that." He sighed and I froze for a second. He cared about me? Maybe I was over analysing his words. We had known each other for years, he loved me life a brother. He loved me... Maybe... no, he wasn't... but wait! He had said he was gay... But how he acted with Daehyun... Then again that seemed friendly and Daehyun seemed more interested in the Youngjae guy... 

"Sleep." He said as he climbed into bed next to me and my heart rate picked up even more than it had in the past few moments. "Don't worry, I've contacted your manager, I've got your diet and daily schedule so you keep toning your body, I know how much you worry about your fans opinions." He said and I had to admit that in the moment I hadn't even been thinking about keeping my abs for the performance at the festival. It was like my whole being was focused on Yongguk and how close he was to me. "Relax, sleep, I'm only going to extend the time you stay here if you don't."

At that I turned my back to Yongguk and closed my eyes, still not being ale to sleep.

After almost an hour of lying with my eyes closed I felt a pair of hands snake around my waist and w warm damp pressure on my neck. "You have no idea what you do to me." Yongguk hummed as the pressure pulled away and I was left with a warm breath fanning my neck but the arms remained.

I didn't fall asleep for another few hours, I was questioning how I really felt about Yongguk and realising I was much more protective, affectionate and caring when I was with him over when I was with my other hyungs. I didn't think it was love, but it was close and that worried me. What if I had heard wrong and what if it was just as a little brother. That night I became much more conscious over any little thing my Hyung did and resolved that I wouldn't do anything to admit my realisation until Yongguk did something first.

After I had finally managed to get some sleep it was one of the best nights sleep I had had in years and I could have sworn that at one point between when I fell asleep and when I woke up there had been a warm damp pressure on my lips that didn't quite pull me from my sleep but became part of a dream,    


End file.
